I got a lot of great feedback on this one, so I think I'll continue it a series of oneshots. Some will be a continuation of the first chapter and some like this chapter stand alone.

Thank you all for the great responses!

Thwam

Sweat poured down her neck in rivulets. It was the impact and the burst of air out of her lungs with each one that satisfied.

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Even as her fist connected with their target, even as the air was expelled gloriously from her lungs and the muscles in her arms began to burn she felt something return to her.

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People have said that Los Angeles changes you. That the City of Angels can make or break you. It's a rough town and no place for pansies to be sure. It had seen the strongest fall.

Bringing down Peyton Sawyer had been a snap. Los Angeles had sucked something out of her, transformed her into a person unrecognizable. It was a change that only became more apparent when she returned home to Tree Hill.

She had become a person who let people who claimed to be her friends remind her constantly of her failure. As though the fact that she had crawled home with little left of her soul and self-esteem wasn't enough.

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As though coming home, with her heart in her hands, to offer to the one person who had been a constant in her mind, even after he'd left, wasn't enough.

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Only to find that he had upgraded to a gorgeous, well-spoken, successful knockout and he couldn't even bear to hug her hello. As if she had wronged him somehow. THWAM

Ha-ha Peyton Sawyer sucks at life.

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Peyton Sawyer, the she-devil who can't stay away from Lucas, who won't let him be happy with Lindsey. And everyone…

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was on team-

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fucking Lindsey.

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She had become the butt of the joke. She had become the enemy, the other. And what made it worse-what killed her, was that they had her believing it too. Her friends who tell her that she and Lucas are supposed to be together and then happily create a wedding dress for her. Her friends who tell Lucas that she means more to him than he is willing to admit and then in the next breath question her intentions, her love.

ThwamThwamThwamThwamWack

It had been several long years since she pulled this thing out. A gift from a brother she didn't speak to as often as she'd like and saw even less. The brother who returned her strength and her fire after it had been snuffed out of her.

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What would Derek do? You're made of better stuff than this Sawyer. No fear.

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Rivulets of sweat poured down her back and brow. She wiped at her eyes with a quick swipe before setting back on the generic face she was pummeling. She didn't see specific people really-no matter how much Haley deserved a punch to her sanctimonious-judgmental face. She felt the emotion associated with those faces and every time her fist connected, it was one step farther away from the hurt and closer to the Peyton Sawyer Derek had reintroduced her to, to the Peyton Sawyer

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Outside the sun was setting over Tree Hill. Haley was somewhere singing her songs and being self-righteous. Brooke was somewhere trying to fill a void with a baby she couldn't keep. Lucas was trying to fill his own void by helping her, and Brooke was letting him.

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Despite all of it, Peyton smiled. Fuck it.

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She was Peyton freaking Sawyer.

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She'd be on her own team.

You know the drill. :-)